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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29121963">Clutching at Straws</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghoststar/pseuds/Ghoststar'>Ghoststar</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Louie Does Crime [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Cobra Kai (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Humor, I Imply A Lot of Things, Implied Eventual Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence, Implied Sexual Content, Implied:, M/M, Organized Crime, Season/Series 02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 13:01:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,177</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29121963</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghoststar/pseuds/Ghoststar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><i>It takes quitting a job Anoush has had for sixteen years for him to finally take Louie up on his offer to get a beer. It’s a mistake- he knows it’s a mistake- but Anoush is having a bad day and maybe getting shitfaced with his annoying coworker and part-time friend will help. He’s pretty sure it won’t but it’s worth a try.</i><br/>-</p>
<p>Anoush finally takes Louie up on that drink. The night doesn't go nearly as bad as he expects it to.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Louie LaRusso Jr./Anoush Norouzi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Louie Does Crime [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2319407</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>43</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Clutching at Straws</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It takes quitting a job Anoush has had for sixteen years for him to finally take Louie up on his offer to get a beer. It’s a mistake- he <em> knows </em> it’s a mistake- but Anoush is having a bad day and maybe getting shitfaced with his annoying coworker and part-time friend will help. He’s pretty sure it won’t but it’s worth a try.</p>
<p>The thing, when you get right down to it, is that Anoush doesn’t even want to work for Tom Cole. The guy’s a grade-A douche-bag, the type of guy that probably tries to wheedle his way out of paying overtime and honoring vacation days. His cars are pieces of shit, his prices jacked up by 400%, and his staff consists of a bunch of liars and crooks looking for their next commission.</p>
<p>Sure, the job comes with a nice pay raise, but that’s not even why Anoush took his offer. He took it to prove a point. A point that sailed right over Daniel’s sweatband wearing head. What did it take to get some attention from that man? Did Anoush have to wear a gi and threaten to beat his ass? Is that what Amanda is going to have to resort to? Did Anoush even want to know?</p>
<p>Daniel is being such an asshole, Anoush thinks and says as much to Louie.</p>
<p>“He didn’t even show up! I’ve worked for him for over a decade. I covered for him when Samantha and Anthony were born. I sat through sales meetings and made-up reports and cleaned up vomit that one time. I thought we were friends.”</p>
<p>Louie nods along. He’s already on his second beer, fingers tapping in the puddle of condensation gathering on the bar top. His beer is some imported brand that Anoush had agreed to try but already regrets. Anoush really shouldn’t be surprised it’s awful, he’s seen the things Louie passes off as lunch. Anoush isn’t one to waste money, but he wants to get drunk, not suffer.</p>
<p>“Man, you’re telling me. I’m his cousin. I’ve known him since I was born. He didn’t even give me a warning.”</p>
<p>Anoush doesn’t want to side with Daniel on anything at the moment but- “You set fire to a guy’s car.”</p>
<p>“Technically, Paul did it. And come on, the guy deserved it.”</p>
<p>“I stepped in his shit and<em> I </em>don’t think he deserved it,” Anoush drawls. Those had been his favorite pair of shoes too. Anoush had left them next to the parking meter when he and Louie had finished with the billboard. Someone had picked them up shortly after and Anoush hopes they managed to get them clean.</p>
<p>“I’m not talking about his billboard,” Louie says and waves a nacho about. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m pissed about it, but even I can see the humor in it. I’m talking about all that shit he did back in high school.”</p>
<p>Anoush drains his beer and catches the bartender’s eye.<em> High school. </em>He is too sober for this. “Please tell me you didn’t have a weird karate rivalry with him too.”</p>
<p>Louie would have been in preschool or something at the time. Anoush wouldn’t put it past the LaRusso family. He had seen Sam during her karate hay day, all of six years old and ready to bulldoze a full-grown man. Daniel had been over the moon with pride. Anoush had been terrified.</p>
<p>“No, man, no. Like, you don’t get it. Daniel might tell you it’s all water under the bridge and that he’s over what happened back then, but that Johnny guy was a real piece of work.”</p>
<p>Daniel had, in fact, told Anoush exactly that. Anoush had even believed him at the time. It had come up several times over the years, sometimes out of the blue. Daniel had a way of talking about it, about high school and bullies and karate tournaments that struck Anoush as weird. It wasn’t rueful or angry, but verging close to nostalgic. It was <em> weird. </em></p>
<p>“<em>Johnny didn’t play mind-games.” </em> Daniel had said once, loose on champagne after some milestone or another. “<em>He was very straightforward about his dislike for me.” </em></p>
<p>“<em>He punched you in the face.” </em></p>
<p>“<em>And I hit him back. It was simple.” </em></p>
<p>What the hell did that even mean? At the time, Anoush had been able to tell there was some unchecked baggage behind everything Daniel wasn’t saying, but he and Daniel had both mutually agreed not to touch it. Now, Anoush is pretty sure Daniel has been carting about an airport’s worth of unclaimed baggage he’s still not sorting through. But no, instead he’s reigniting a thirty-year dead karate rivalry and letting the rest of his life burn down around him.</p>
<p>It had almost been funny at first. High school was thirty years ago and watching his boss, his friend, get all flustered about his high school rival? Anoush could admit to enjoying a bit of drama every now and again. He even got the sense that Daniel was having fun at times. That rueful smile he wore when Lawrence outmaneuvered him; when Daniel actually had to think about how to get ahead. But then Daniel had started to take things personally and act obsessive and it quit being funny real fucking fast.</p>
<p>If only Anoush had sent Johnny’s Lawrence’s piece of shit car to the junkyard when Tom the tow guy pulled it into the lot. He would still have a job with a boss he actually liked and this whole karate fiasco could have been avoided for another thirty years.</p>
<p>“I’ve heard,” Anoush answers and requests the night’s special when the bartender stops to check-in. “Daniel also mentioned that he and Johnny settled it at that Tournament. The 1984 whatever.” Daniel had always ended the story talking about how Johnny and his friends had never bothered him again. How some guy had even apologized at one point. For years, that was all of it. Story over, epilogue in progress.</p>
<p>And now this shit.</p>
<p>“Does it look settled to you?” Louie asks and his eyebrows are pulled together, a frown marring his face.</p>
<p>“You’re not going to burn down his karate studio or something are you?” Anoush wishes he hadn’t even opened his mouth. Great, he’s going to end this awful week as an accessory to arson.</p>
<p>“Nah.” Louie says, all causal and suspicious.</p>
<p>“I am not going to explain to you that arson is bad. Just know that if the police ask, I will rat you out to save my own skin.”</p>
<p>“So you wouldn’t help me escape town if I did?”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t help you move, why would I help you run from the police?”</p>
<p>“You’re so cruel to me, Anoush. I can’t believe you’re going to abandon me when I’m at my lowest.”</p>
<p><em> You drove yourself there all by yourself, </em> Anoush thinks but doesn’t say. He’s been thinking that about a lot of people in his life lately and he’s not sure how it got to this point.</p>
<p>Anoush smiles his thanks at the bartender, pulling the neon yellow banana daiquiri towards himself. She collects their bottles, dropping a wrapped crazy straw on the counter before she slides down to the next customer. Anoush sits the tiny umbrella and skewered cherries on a napkin and goes about shoving the straw inside. He kills half the drink before he sits it down, feeling the burn of rum and the cramping pain of brain freeze pulling his face into a grimace. Hand to his forehead, tongue to the roof of his mouth, he blinks one eye open to find Louie sipping his daiquiri and eating his cherries.</p>
<p>“Were you raised by wolves? Get your own,” Anoush demands and snatches his drink back. He thumbs the straw clean and resumes drinking.</p>
<p>“That’s pretty good. Kinda reminds of those freezies you can get at the gas station.” Louie smacks his lips and finishes off the cherries while Anoush nurses his drink. He catches the bartender on her way past and orders on for himself.</p>
<p>“You’re not actually going to burn down the dojo are you?”</p>
<p>“I don’t think Daniel would appreciate it.” Which heavily implies Louie <em> would </em> if Daniel asked. What the fuck is wrong with this family? </p>
<p>“He wouldn’t. He’s a big boy. He can deal with Johnny on his own.” And ruin his life, but Anoush is officially no longer involved in that.</p>
<p>“Then I guess we’ll call the high school thing square and move on like the adults we are. Sound good?” Louie doesn’t wait for an answer as he pops his last nacho in his mouth.</p>
<p>Sure. Anoush believes that. Just like he believes the Earth is flat and vaccines have microchips in them.</p>
<p>It takes a lot of effort, but Anoush decides to move on to the next subject.</p>
<p>“So, what are you going to do now? You never said where you’re working now.”</p>
<p>Louie shrugs and some of the teasing mirth goes with it. “Nothing at the moment. Enjoying the time off. Amanda’s planning on getting me transferred to the Reseda branch next month, but she’s trying to smooth things over with Daniel first.”</p>
<p>“You think he’s going to forgive you anytime soon?”</p>
<p>“We’re family. He always forgives me eventually. Even if that doesn’t work out, there’s always the family business back in Jersey.” Louie says Jersey the same way he use to say his ex-girlfriend’s name. Full of longing and fondness with that bitter edge of heartbreak.</p>
<p>“I don’t get why you even moved here,” Anoush says and it’s not the first time. “You hate California.”</p>
<p>“Ah, you know how it is. You talk some shit to the wrong people and the next thing you know you’re getting bricks thrown through your window and death threats left on your answering machine.”</p>
<p>“No. No, I really don’t know how that is.” Anoush says and once against wonders<em> what the fuck. </em></p>
<p>Louie thinks for a moment, then half shrugs, half nods. He sips his daiquiri, lips wet and shining in the warm bar light, and continues. “Well, I talked some shit to the wrong guy and Nonna got worried. She said that Daniel would be a good influence on me while things settled, but<em> I </em> think she just wanted someone to keep an eye on <em> him</em>. Nonna never got over Aunt Lucille moving them out here back in ‘84. You should hear her and Aunt Lucile get into it on the phone. Her last words are going to be, <em> when you moving back to Jersey, Lucille?’” </em>Louie pitches his voice high and wispy and maybe it’s the warm buzz of alcohol but Anoush laughs.</p>
<p>“What does she think of all this?”</p>
<p>Louie’s eyes got comically wide. “You think I’m gonna tell her about this? She’ll drive her motorized scooter clear across the country just to run me down. You’ll be scraping me off the pavement if she ever finds out! No, if anyone is going to tell her, it better be Daniel. He can deal with that old bat.”</p>
<p>“You’ll burn out a car for him, but you won’t defend him against your grandmother?”</p>
<p>“You don’t know my grandma,” Louie protests. “And anyway, it’s like you said. Daniel’s a big boy. He can fight his own battles.”</p>
<p>“But only when it comes to ancient old women.”</p>
<p>“He’d fair far better against that karate guy, I’ll tell you that much.”</p>
<p>Anoush rolls his eyes and picks up his drink. He’s seen photos of the LaRusso family, the great sprawling bunch that there was. Nonna, real name never mentioned, is a tiny old lady that’s inching her way towards triple digits and probably has just as many grand and great-grandkids to match. It’s a sprawling family tree, one that Daniel hasn’t been able to name half the branches of in over a decade, but Louie could name every cousin, no matter how far removed, could name their latest partner and half their recent activities if asked. Anoush always figured it was a result of Facebook, but maybe Louie’s just that kind of guy.</p>
<p>“Hey, I know this song,” Louie says and sits upright on his stool.</p>
<p>Anoush listens with half an ear. It’s something dancey, something from the early 2000s that Anoush heard a thousand and one times on the radio, but couldn’t repeat a single lyric of if put to gunpoint. Louie’s hand settles on his arm.</p>
<p>“Come on,” Louie says, sliding off the stool and pulling Anoush with him. “Let’s dance.”</p>
<p>Anoush looks around the bar. It’s upscale in the sense that it has mood lighting and private booths and the floor has been cleaned at least once in the past year. It’s certainly not the kind of bar you go to if you want to dance, much less badly.</p>
<p>“This isn’t that kind of bar,” Anoush points out after an expectant beat.</p>
<p>“Sure it is. Any bar is a dance club if you’re drunk enough.”</p>
<p>“I’m not drunk enough.” Anoush protests. At Louie’s crestfallen face, he sighs and holds up a finger, slurping down what’s left of his drink. He thunks it down and settles his feet on the floor. “Well, that didn’t work, but I’m as close as I’m getting. Let’s embarrass ourselves.”</p>
<p>“I’ve never been embarrassed in my life,” Louie assures him and drags him away from the bar.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>They leave the bar around three, stumbling over each other and into the waiting arms of an exhausted Uber driver. The driver rolls down the back windows for them, letting in the warm summer breeze and the smell of car exhaust. Anoush buckles his belt and slumps back in his seat as Louie shuffles and curses and does the same. The Uber driver checks the address and pulls out, heading towards the freeway.</p>
<p>It hadn’t been much of a decision. Louie had pulled out his phone to order an Uber and Anoush had rattled off his address, knowing his place is closer, is nicer, isn’t a mugging hazard when you’re starting to sober up and sweat is still cooling against your skin. There hadn’t been much thought put into it. There hadn’t been much thought put into <em> any </em> of the night.</p>
<p>The night hadn’t been bad, which was surprising. It had been pleasant, to just sit around and bitch for a while with someone who would understand. Louie is good company when he’s not bringing the bosses down on your head for hazing new employees or flirting with criminal activity. It had, admittedly, been a good time.</p>
<p>They spend the rest of the forty-minute drive in silence, the driver’s music a soft buzz in the speakers. Anoush leans onto the backseat’s armrest and doesn't pull away when Louie nudges his way onto it too, elbows bumping and hands overlapping. Louie’s fingers twitch and Anoush half expects to be challenged to a thumb war before the end of the ride. When they reach Anoushs' place, Louie follows him out. </p>
<p>“So,” Louie says as he walks Anoush to his front door, leaving the Uber to idle in Anoush’s empty parking spot.</p>
<p>“So,” Anoush says and thinks about how he’s going to have to take an Uber to get his car in the morning. About how he’s pretty sure, in a hindsight granted way, that they just went on a date to commiserate getting fired.</p>
<p>“On a scale of sober to wasted, how drunk are you?”</p>
<p>“I probably could have driven home,” Anoush sighs and starts thumbing through his keys. The nice, warm, and loose feeling has faded, leaving him world-weary and ready for bed. “Why?”</p>
<p>“Well, the way I figured it, we might as well end tonight with a bang. We already ordered one of those glitter bombs, so how about one more fuck you to Daniel?” Louie wiggles his eyebrows and leans into Anoush’s space, planting his hand on the door beside his head. “What do you say?”</p>
<p>Anoush knit his eyebrows and looked at him. “Are you coming on to me?” He knows the answer but this is just unbelievable.</p>
<p>“Yeah. Is it working?”</p>
<p>“No!<em> No. </em> I’m not going to have sex with you just to get back at Daniel. What kind of warped <em> General Hospital </em> bullshit logic is that?” Oh, okay, maybe Anoush really did need to quit watching soap operas during his lunch break. Or at least surround himself in adults that weren’t stuck in a weird karate themed love square and a guy that Anoush is pretty sure dabbled in organized crime back in New Jersey.</p>
<p>“Well, you just want to have sex then?”</p>
<p>Anoush opens his mouth to reject him and pauses. Because, well, he isn’t<em> not </em>attracted to Louie. And they are friends, when Louie isn’t annoying the shit out of him. There’s a reason Anoush had never taken him up on any of his plentiful offers to hang out after work and Daniel’s policy against employee relationships had been one of them.</p>
<p>But Anoush isn’t his employee anymore and there really isn’t anything to stop him now.</p>
<p>His mother is going to be so pissed. Her only criteria had been for his partner to be <em> nice </em> and Anoush hadn’t even managed that. Louie is kind of a dick, but hey, Anoush could be a bit of a dick too. He had even had a bad boy phase once. It had lasted for about three weeks, back in college, but it counted. He had ridden a moped and wore sunglasses everywhere and even threatened a guy once for hugging his then-girlfriend. The guy turned out to be her cousin but it counted.</p>
<p>“Okay.”</p>
<p>Louie’s eyes grow wide. “For real?”</p>
<p>Anoush rolls his eyes, snags a hand on Louie’s collar, and pulls him down. It’s… nice. Really, unexpectedly nice, the sweet, slick press of Louie’s mouth as they find a rhythm setting a low shimmer burning inside Anoush. Louie’s hand settles on his waist, his palm hot through Anoush’s shirt.</p>
<p>“Okay,” Louie murmurs against his mouth, pulling away for just a moment. “But you should know I don’t put out on the first date. I’m giving you a sex advance here, so you’re going to have to take me out for breakfast. Unless you know how to cook? Breakfast in bed is worth at least two dates.”</p>
<p>Anoush stares at him. “I don’t know what I see in you,” Anoush informs him, but he unlocks the door and tugs Louie inside by the lapels.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>In the morning, Louie staggers out of bed with a curse, swearing himself red in the face as he scrambles to find his pants and the wallet inside.</p>
<p>“What are you doing?” Anoush demands, groggy and unwilling to help.</p>
<p>“I left the meter running,” he says and darts outside in nothing more than Anoush’s borrowed boxers.</p>
<p>Anoush buries his head under his pillow, contemplates his life choices, then drags himself out of bed to see what will pass for breakfast in his kitchen. He might even manage to get the coffee going before the inevitable shouting match between Louie and the Uber driver wakes up his neighbors.  </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If a ship tag was a youtube comment section, I would totally be screaming, "first!" </p>
<p>Anywho, I was joking like 2 months ago that I was going to get overly invested in Louie/Anoush and then I did. It just took me a while, lol. </p>
<p>Thanks once again to indecisive-behaviors over on tumblr for beta-ing. :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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